Rebecca Evans: I'm very grateful to Sam Rowlands for those questions and comments. I absolutely associate myself with his initial opening remarks, which were around recognising and applauding the efforts of people who do serve every day in our communities as community councillors, town councillors, and as county councillors as well. We're very grateful for all of their work.
Rebecca Evans: Diolch. As elected representatives, we're in a privileged position. We're trusted to do our very best for the people that we serve. And whilst I'm talking about local government today, the issues apply to all parts of our democracy. The decisions that our councillors make have real-life impacts on our communities across Wales. Our communities are made up of people who are...
Rebecca Evans: I'd just like to thank the Chair very much for those comments, and also thank the Chair and the committee for looking so quickly at the regulations and dealing with them so speedily. I'm grateful to him for his recognition of the particular context within which these regulations were laid. Thank you.
Rebecca Evans: Diolch, Llywydd. I move the motion to approve the Non-Domestic Rating (Chargeable Amounts) (Wales) Regulations 2022. The regulations provide transitional relief to ratepayers with increased liabilities as a result of the non-domestic rating revaluation taking effect on 1 April 2023. Relief will be provided in a similar way to the scheme we applied following the 2017 revaluation, but with...
Rebecca Evans: One of the things that I am disappointed not to be able to do is make further significant capital allocations. That was a matter of deep regret, that there was no further capital as a result of the autumn statement. Our capital budget will be 8.1 per cent lower in 2024-25 than in the current year. And, of course, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the London School of...
Rebecca Evans: Diolch, Llywydd, and thank you to all colleagues for what I think has been a really constructive set of comments and representations this afternoon. And I know that, once colleagues have had the chance to digest the full suite of budget information, there will inevitably be lots more questions and comments, so I'm more than happy to continue that dialogue as we move forward towards the...
Rebecca Evans: I'm pleased to make a statement on the Welsh Government's draft budget for 2023-24, which has been laid this afternoon. This is a draft budget unlike any other that we've laid since the start of devolution. It's been one of the toughest that we've ever made, reflecting the perfect storm of economic and budgetary pressures faced in Wales, none of which are of our making. A decade of austerity...
Rebecca Evans: Happy to move to the vote.
Rebecca Evans: Thank you. I move the motion to approve the Non-Domestic Rating (Persons Required to Supply Information and Service of Notices) (Wales) Regulations 2022. The regulations define third parties that may be required by local authorities to supply information about a non-domestic property and the way in which a related notice may be served. This will assist local authorities in carrying out their...
Rebecca Evans: Existing and new EU funding programmes overlap by two years, and the Welsh Government was ready to start a post-EU investment programme almost two years ago, in January 2021, and, by that point, we'd already done a huge amount of intensive work with the OECD and with our Welsh partners to create the strongest possible model for Wales. And it's still completely unacceptable that the UK...
Rebecca Evans: Diolch. I welcome the motion today and would like to thank the Finance Committee for its work and for the report on post-EU funding arrangements, but also to all of those Welsh partners who have engaged so strongly with the inquiry as well and provided such clear evidence. It really is a timely and important contribution to the debate on what is a critical issue, as the UK Government's...
Rebecca Evans: I was pleased to see the Member at our tax conference, which took place last week. I hope that he enjoyed it as much as I did. I think one of the really interesting sessions was with representatives from Scotland and Northern Ireland, where they considered the different risks and opportunities of the different fiscal frameworks that we have. The devolution of the thresholds would allow us to...
Rebecca Evans: Devolution of the income tax thresholds would introduce opportunities and risks, and we would want to consider this as part of our wider strategy for devolved taxes. We need the UK Government to engage with us to review the process for securing the devolution of further tax powers to Wales.
Rebecca Evans: We're absolutely committed to taking forward the recommendations from the review of the strategic partnerships, which was agreed by the partnership council for Wales. We are of the view, though, that any changes should be locally led and locally driven. We've seen a good example of that, I think, through the way in which the public services boards in Gwent have operated in terms of coming...
Rebecca Evans: The autumn statement increases the pressure on public services. The funds provided for public services are being cut in real terms, squeezing their resources even further. This makes the work of public services boards to improve the well-being of their communities challenging, but more important than ever.
Rebecca Evans: Just to repeat what I said to colleagues earlier in relation to discussions I've been having with local government, they absolutely recognise the need to use those reserves both this year to manage some of the pressures, but also next year as well. I'm frankly relieved that local authorities are in a better financial position to enter the difficult period ahead, particularly when you compare...
Rebecca Evans: I have discussed local authority reserves with leaders as part of our ongoing discussions on pressures and funding. All leaders have stressed that they are already using reserves to manage their current pressures and expect to continue to have to do so next year.
Rebecca Evans: Absolutely, and that's something that we were pressing the UK Government for ahead of the autumn statement and ahead of the budget before that, in fact. But, in terms of discussions with energy companies, those tend to take place between both the Minister for Social Justice and the Minister for Climate Change; they will be the people who have the direct discussions with those energy...
Rebecca Evans: Well, I don't want to pre-empt the outcome of the ongoing budget discussions that are taking place across the board at the moment, but I will say the pressures on education, which the Member has described, have been brought home very strongly to Welsh Government by colleagues in local government, and my colleague the Minister for Education and Welsh Language always makes a very robust case...
Rebecca Evans: Yes, I absolutely agree: the UK Government does need to be using all of its influence on the energy companies to reduce the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on the most vulnerable people. And just to reassure the Member—and I could hear a lot of support for what he was saying from others in the Chamber—that the Minister for Social Justice has met with energy suppliers earlier this...
